Week 1 – Discussion 1

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, review the following Required Resources:

• Chapters 1 and 2 of the textbook
• Body Ritual Among the Nacirema (Links to an external site.)
• Corporate Anthropology: Michael Henderson at TEDxAuckland (Links to an external site.)
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story (Links to an external site.)

Check the Twitter feed for @AmericanAnthro (Links to an external site.) for any additional resource(s) you may find useful for this discussion.

Choose one of the following two options to address in this discussion. Be sure that your initial post meets the full length requirement of 300 words, and that you incorporate at least two of this week’s required resources in your post, one of which should be the textbook. Include citations and a full reference to your chosen sources. (See the Required Resources page for all references in APA format).

Option 1: Review the Corporate Anthropology: Michael Henderson at TEDxAuckland (Links to an external site.) video and read Body Ritual Among the Nacirema (Links to an external site.). Pretend that you are an anthropologist.

• Describe a typical day in the life of the Nacirema (remember that the Nacirema are Americans—Miner is describing us from an etic perspective).
• Describe your modern tribe (the people you spend most of your time with).
  • What might someone from another culture find unusual about your daily routine, workplace (if relevant), and setting?
  • How would a cultural outsider see your life? Is there anything she or he might find unusual or interesting that you see as normal and everyday?

Option 2: Review the TED Talk Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story (Links to an external site.), then

• Briefly describe the stories that you grew up with, whether these are from books, TV shows, movies, or another source.
• How did these stories influence your perceptions of yourself and of the world?
  • Did you identify with the background of the main characters or were they from a different background than you?
  • As an adult, what stories do you identify with now?
  • How are these stories similar to and different from the ones you grew up with?
  • Are there certain areas of the world or certain people about whom you only have a single story?
  • How could you work to broaden your understanding of others?

Guided Response: Review several of your peers’ posts and respond to at least two peers by Day 7. Respond to at least one student who chose a different option than you. Choose a student who has not received peer feedback if at all possible. If your instructor responds to your post, please respond to him or her. Each response to a peer should be a minimum of 75 words. Be sure to relate your discussion back to the course materials and move the conversation forward by asking a question, raising a new point, or elaborating more thoroughly upon a point already raised. Continue to monitor the discussion forum until 5:00 p.m. (Mountain Time) on Day 7, and respond with robust dialogue to anyone who replies to your initial post.